From: dbriggs <dbriggs@mail.idt.net>
Newsgroups: alt.ql.creative
Subject: QL: "Farm Boy" - Part Two
Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1997 20:47:04 -0800
Organization: IDT 
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Chapter Two
	After the talent show rehersal, Sam drove KElly to his old house. 
Sam remembered driving down the lane that lead to his house many times, 
but this time was special. He greatly anticipated the trip and going to 
his childhood home. He could finally once again be with his parents and 
sister, and this time be with his girlfriendx as well. He wondered what 
excitement and memories lay on the road ahead.
	Sam parked the car by the side of the house, and Kelly and he got 
out. Sam turned his body around and saw that Kelly was standing close to 
him facing his nearby. He put his arms around her. He drew her close to 
him as he leaned his body between her and the car. He moved his lips in 
to kiss her.
	Kelly pulled slightly away from him before he kissed her. She 
reached up to the maroon baseball cap he wore, and turned it around so 
that the brim was facing behind him. "What did you do that for?" he asked 
as he held Kelly close to him.
	"So, it's easier to do this," she said as she kissied him. 
	Closing his eyes, he kissed her on her sweet lips. In that kiss, 
he felt all of his feelins that he once had and still do pouring into 
him. A renewing of his love for her. Love. Devotion. Affection. 
Admiration. Teenage lust and passion.
	Sam had no idea how long they were there together, but when they 
finally seperated. Al was standing near the parch looking at them. "What 
are you doing here? Sam askedturning around 
	"Well, Sam little sister, Katie, said as she walked down the 
stairs. Sam didn't even realize the she was standing on the porch. "I 
wasn't spying on you. I could care less about yo playing tonsil hockey 
with your girlfriend. Mom just sent me out to get the mail." She 
continued to walk down to their mailbox that was near the road.
	"At least, no she knows how annoying someone else's little sister 
could be," Al said. Sam looked at him curiously.
	"Sammy, do you want to play a little one-on-one before supper?" 
Kelly asked.
	"Really?" he said at the same time as Al. He looked over at Al. 
Sam could tell by Al's expression that they had just thought the same 
thing. *Oh, boy!* Sam said silently to himself. *I'm beginning to think 
like him.* Sam looked at Al giving his friend a look of disbelief as Sam 
ran his hand over his face embrassed.
	"I'm taking about basketball," she said slightly annoyed. She 
started to go up the stairs. "I think I see the basketball on the porch. 
You probably left it there."
	"I think."
	"Good. I'll get it." The ball was near the porch swing. Kelly 
leaned over to pick it up. "Catch," she said as she passed her boyfriend 
the ball from the top of the stairs. "I'll race you down." Shje started 
to run toward the barn near the house where the basketball hoop was set 
up.
	"Now, why are you here?" he said turning to Al.
	"I found out who your girlfriend really is," Al told Sam as the 
two of them walked down to the barn.
	"Who is she?" Sam asked.
	"She's a total babe for one thing, and she's probably a really 
good kisser."
	"I mean the facts, Al."
	"I'm telling you all the facts I witnessed. You were playing 
'tonsil hockey' with her for a really long time."
	"Just drop it," he said to Al as they got down to the barn.
	Kelly was already standing below the beat-up hoop that was 
hanging just above the barn door. "Why should I drop the ball? I beat you 
down here fair and square. No way are you going to get it away form me, 
unless it's on the court."
	"Let's play," Sam said as he began to play with her. Al sttod 
near the door watching them. Kelly wouldn't let Sam near the ball, and 
made several baskets before he even got the chane. Kelly was already 
really good at sports. She was the captain of the girls' basketball team, 
and had earned the nickname 'Lighting' for moving so fast on the court.
	"It's amazing that you're on the boy's team. I thought that guys 
were supposed to be good in sports," she said as she made a hok shot into 
the basket. If he was correct, it was her tenth basket so far.
	"Did I tell you that I actually did a check on Kelly for you?" Al 
told Sam.
	"No," Sam answered.
	"Well, I think it's amazing, and I'm kicking your sorry little 
cute ass," she said.
	"I told you I knew her from somewhere," Al said. "I was right!"
	"You're right?"
	"I know I'm right," Kelly and Al said.
	"I didn't believe it until I saw her playing basketball now," Al 
coninued. "I ran a check through Ziggy. The only thing I had to go on was 
her name, Kelly Viaggio."
	Sam saw his father coming out of the barn. "Sam, can you go feed 
the chickens and get the eggs?" Sam father asked.
	Sam stopped playing with Kelly, and turned away from Al. "But, 
dad!" *What's wrong with me?* Sam asked himself. *I see my own dad for 
the first time i a long time and know his fate, but the first thing I do 
is whine about my chorse, just like I really did when I was sixteen?*
	"No buts about it, son. If you're to run this farm someday, 
you're to do your chores today. I don't know how long you're going to 
last in college. YOu'll probably do really well. On the other hand, you 
may, after the first semester, turn around and say that you miss the 
country."
	*Why can't my dad ever compleely get used to the fact that I'm 
going to leave, and start a life of my own and a career of my own?* he 
pondered. *I do not want to be stuck as a farmer for the rest of my life. 
I wish my dad could know about me now. Now actually know about what I do, 
just know that I'm very sucessful in what I do. I think that if he knew 
he would be very proud of me.* "Yes, dad," Sam said defeated.
	"I'm going to stay here, until you get back," Kelly said aiming 
for another basket.
	"Sure," Sam said as he and Al went into the barn. Sam and Al 
walked into the empty stall in the barn which his family kept as a shed. 
LArge bags of animal feed were leaning against the whitewashed walls. He 
closed the door behind them, and picked up the small white bucke that was 
hanging on a hook behind the door. "Care to help me?" he said scooping 
the bucket into the bag of chicken feed. Some feed escaped from the bag 
and fell onto the dirty barn floor.
	"No, way! You must be out of your mind! Me doing farm chores!" 
Sam could tell that Al was really disgusted at his suggestion. "Anyway, 
even if I could, I wouldn't ever come near this smelly barn. Sam, what do 
I know about chickens? I grew up in a Italian neighborhood in he Bronx. 
Meanwhile, when you were young, yo were dating the type of girl guys have 
wet dreams about out in the middle of nowhere," he said in disbelief. Sam 
could tell from the sound of his voice that he was really jelous. Al 
looked at his friend getting the feed out of the bag. "Come to thing 
about it. There was a chicken store in my old neighborhood."
	"What's a chicken store?"
	"It's a store that sells live chickens."
	"You can buy live chickens in New York City?" Sam asked in 
disbelief.
	"Yeah, they chop its head off and pluck it right in the store. 
The store has some memories. The storekeeper's daughter was really 
something. She had these enormous pair of eggs." Al shaped a woman's 
breasts in mid-air.
	*Why does everything Al ever talks about end up being about him 
and some woman?* "Let me guess. You both did it in the middle of the 
chicken coop or whatever-you-call-it?"
	"How did you know?"
	*How could you not know?* Sam thought.
	"It was really spooky thought with all those crazy birds looking 
at us and blood stains on the concrete floor. Since that day, I can't 
pass a chicken store without thinking about it. I was probably about 
fourteen back then, and she was gorgeous and a few years older. It was 
either there or behind the dumpsters. If those dumpsters could talk! One 
place was worst then the other, but what great memories they have. That's 
one of the reasons why I got a cool set of wheels as soon as I could 
afford it. Now, it's only by choice."
	*Al at age fourteen behind dumpsters and in the slaughterhouse!* 
"Fourteen! When I was fourteen, I had just gotten my first real kiss. The 
only reason why I got got my first French kiss in the first place was 
because Kelly kissed me, before I even had a chace to think about it."
	"I told you New York babes are the best," he said smiling. 
"Unfortunately, one of them decided to hit puberty out here in the middle 
of nowhere."
	"Al, you said that you remembered her from somewhere," he said 
pumping his friend for information.
	"Oh, yeah. Right. It seems that I did know her from New York 
afterall. It was hard though. I spent the past few hours trying to figure 
it out. Ziggy was no help at all. She was so stubborn giving out 
information for a know-it-all computer, because she had trouble piecing 
together the information and refusd to say anything until she made sense 
out of everything. I asked Gushie to fix Ziggy, so that she'll tell me 
something, but Gushie ddn't want to have anything to do with it. I ended 
up having to get Tina to help me."
	*I wonder if they also spent the past few hours doing other 
things as well,* Sam thought as he rolled his eyes at Al.
: = "It seems that Kelly's mother worked at the orphanage volunteering as 
a nurse for two days a week patching up kids that were sick or were in 
fight," Al continued.
	"You knew her mom?"
	"Yeah, I knew her entire family, especially her brother. Her 
brother and I were best friends."
	"You were her brother's best friend?" Sam asked trying to take 
all of this new information in.
	"Yeah, he was probably the only friend I had in the damn city. He 
helped his mom sometimes that's how we met. Back when I was around 
sixteen, I usually spent most of my time with him in his neighborhood 
around Arthur Avenue. That's probably the most Italian area in the entire 
Bronx." He hesitated a moment as he thought about his own teen years. It 
certainly was not the Norman Rockwell painting of americana, which Sam 
grew up in. Everything always seemed much better when he was within the 
circle of kindness and love of the family. "With the Viaggios, it was 
very pity. It was sorta a real strong kindness. The Viaggios really 
taught me the meaning of family. They always treated me like one of their 
own. They even let me crash at their apartment sometimes, when I ran 
away. They probably would have given me a permenant home, if I wan't such 
a pain in the ass teenager. I would probably be dead or in jail by now, 
if I didn't have them t look out for me."
	Instead, you're helping me help other," Sam said. "Mrs. Viaggio 
would probably be very proud of you now."
	"She'd probably be proud of the both of us now."
	"She definitely would." Sam remembered all of the different 
things that she did around his hometown, like raising money for all sorts 
of different causes to help those in need. Mrs. Viaggio always seemed to 
help the poor farmers or those who were sick by doing all that she could 
for them. Sam always looked up to her, because of her good deeds. Sam 
remembered that when his own family was in danger and finally lost their 
farm, Mrs. Viaggio was always there with them every step of the way 
helping them out. "Mrs. Viaggio was always really generous."
: = "Even upon death," Al added. "She donated a lot of things and money o 
the priests that weere in charge of the orphanage, that was the only 
reason that we were able to find anything about her identity. There's a 
small plaque somewhere in the New York Archdiocese dedicated to her. I 
had to get Tina to hack into the church's computers. She really didn't 
want to do it, even for me. She kept teasing me saying she kept finding 
things saying what a troublemaker I was." He grinned.
	*He must be thing of what belse happened betwen him and Tina,* 
Sam assumed. "If you knew KElly from way back then, she would only be a 
little baby or little kid. What does that have to do with her playing 
basketball?"
	"That's just it! She wasn't a little kid. She was almost a 
teenager, and a really good basketball player."
	"Maybe, Kelly has a older siste you're thinking about."
	"I don't think so."
	"I think you're just confused," he said as he picked up the 
bucket filled with hay to play the eggs in and held onto the feed bucket.
	"I'm not! I was best friends with her big brother, David, back in 
the Bronx and when we were in the service. In fact, David was the one who 
talked me into joining the Navy in the first place. I was practically a 
big brother to her, too. I should know who she is! Dodger used to follow 
me around me around like a love sick puppy dog."
	"Dodger?"
	"That's what everybody called her back then. She wanted to become 
the first woman to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. She was a real tomboy 
and a real pest. Dodger always said that if Jackie Robinson could be the 
first African-American, then she could be the first woman. Basketball was 
Dodger's main sport though. She was able to beat any guy in the entire 
neighborhood. Go on ask her. Ask her anything about what I told you," Al 
said as they left the stall on their way to the coop. Kelly was still 
playing by herself, and making one perfect shot after another.
	"Ok. I'll ask her," Sam said. "Kelly, when yu were in the Bronx, 
did you know a guy named Albert Calavicci?" he asked Kelly just to spite 
Al.
	"The name sounds familiar," she said.
	"See," he said. "I told you so."
	"But, there were so many guys with Italian names. It was so hard 
to keep everyone straight. Maybe, I didn't know him at all," she said. 
"Why did you ask?"
	"Oh, never mind," Sam excused. "See," he said quietly to Al. "She 
doesn't remember you. You didn't even know each other."
	"We still could of. Go on ask her about her brother," Al coaxed.
	"You're brother's name is David. Right?"
	"Yes."
	"He's in the Navy. Right?"
	She looked up at the basketball hoop trying for a 
three-point-shot. "Well, he's stationed at Pensacola now. A lot of people 
are in the Navy, like your brother." She threw the ball.
	Sam did not wait and see if it had gone in or not, but kept 
walking towards the chicken coop. He went inside to toss the grain out of 
the bucket at the chickens, and left the egg bucket near the entrance. 
"Al, I told you that she nor her brother knew you. I doubt you would have 
known him in the service or otherwise."
	"Why do the skinniest scrawnist little girls end up as the most 
beautiful chicks? If I knew she would turn out to look like that, I would 
have paid a lo more attention to her when she was a real runt," he said 
as he leered at Kelly. By the way his eyes were bugging out, Sam could 
tell that Al had paid no attention to what Sam had just said. "Why did 
she ever leave the Bronx for some hick town like this? If she stayed back 
tehre, I might of had a chace with her. To think that we just had to wait 
a few more years. I can't believe that I never had the chance to be with 
a great looking babe like that, and you did." Al's voice trailed off as 
he watched Kelly reach and stretch her body before the makeshift 
basketball court.
	*Can't al stop looking and thinking about Kelly like that?* Sam 
wished. *She's my girlfriend, and not his!*
	"Anyway Sam, that's not the half of the information."
	"I'm not listening."
	"I found her birth certificate, and the date on it is May 5, 
1981. 1981!"
	"Maybe, it was her kid's."
	"I doubt it. The mother's name was Dodger's mother, Maria 
Viaggio, and Dodger's name was Kelly Viaggio. That's what their names 
were on it and still are."
	"Al, you're the one who's freaking out, and you keep accusing 
me," he told him. "What is it about this place anyway? At least, I had a 
good reason. I was trying to protect my family. You're going crazy over a 
girl. You're really nuts!"
	"I'm not nuts! You can check out all of this, if you want to."
	"You know I can't come back to look at your so-called 
information."
	"Well, there's evidence right on your head. I think you can check 
that."
	"Huh?"
	"Your baseball cap." Sam forgot that he even had it on. He 
reached up, and fixed it moving the brim facing the front. "It was 
backwards," Al stated.
	"So, what does that have to do with anything?"
	"A lot of young guys wear their caps backwards in the present - 
in Kelly's present. Nobody did it back here in the sixties."
	"I still don't believe what you told me about Kelly is true, and 
I'm not convinced your litle evidence proved anything."
	"Well, at least, say you trust me. I never told you false 
information beofore, except if it was Ziggy's fault. Not really, anyway. 
Sam, do you know what your problem is?" he concluded. "You're acting too 
logical."
	"It's better than having your problem. Everything has to have a 
logical explaination. What I do is logical, because it can be explained 
by science." Sam placed the empty bucke that held the feed down on the 
ground, and picked up the egg bucket.
	"Maybe, some people would say it's not logical for a person to 
time travel by taking over peoples bodies in different imes in order to 
fix up their lives. Maybe, you're not the only good time traveler. Ever 
think of that?"
	Sam guessed that Al did have a point, but he still didn't believe 
him. Maybe, it was possible for Kelly to be from another time of times. 
He bent over to get the eggs trying to shoo away the chickens, so he 
could get to them. He picked up about four eggs.
	"Sam, how old are you?" Al asked. Maybe, if he could convince 
Sam, that Project Quantum Leap could be thoght of as illogical, he could 
totally convince Sam that Kelly was also a time traveler. A fact Al 
strongly believed in, because of the information he learned a hort while 
beofore.
	"What does that have to do with anything?" Sam asked.
	"It has to do with everything. Let's just say your middle aged," 
he explained. "Now, look into a mirror and tell me how old you are. 
You're a lot younger aren't you?"
	Sam grabbed onto the chain-link fence, and dreamily looked at 
Kelly. "Well, I feel a lot younger," Sam sighed happily. "I'm a teenager 
again! That's exactly how I feel. I feel like sixteen-year-old farm boy 
and nothing more."
	"You just leaped into a yonger version of ourself," Al stated. 
"It's probably natural to feel that way."
	"It feels much more than that."
	"Well, it isn't." Al raised the handlink, and looked down at the 
display. "Or maybe it is," he said with great disbelief. He hit the 
handlink's side trying to get a more accurate reading.
	"Huh?" Sam said looking away fom his girlfriend and towards his 
best friend.
	"Ziggy says that somthig went really ca-ca with your brain, when 
you leaped in. Somehow, your brain got swished together with your 
youngerself's brain, so now everything is really screwed up inside that 
head of yours. Actually, I don' believe it at all."
	"I don't believe it either," Sam said surprised. "I might feel 
like a tenager being back heree, but that doesn't mean I really am one."
	"At least, Ziggy would consider part of you a teeager. According 
to her, 65% of you brain is from your younger self. Maybe, it's right. 
You are the same person, after all. It would probably be hard to tell."
	"I grew up though."
	"I know that. I met met the younger you in the waiting room the 
last time you leaped into yourself. Nothing ever changes! You just got 
older. That's it."
	"Well, that's a big difference. Many things have happened, since 
I was actually sixteen."
	"But not with 65% of your brain from your other self," he looked 
down at the handlink again. Make that 66%."
	"What do you mean 66%?!" Sam exclaimed.
	"I mean the longer yu stay back here, the more your brain is 
reversing to the sixteen-year-old you."
	"Maybe the same thing happened to Kelly. If she's a time 
traveler, she must be a leaper, just like me." Sam stopped for a moment, 
after he locked the fensce that enclosed the chickens, to look at Kelly.
	"Nay, I really doubt that. Dodger was always a little kid. I knew 
her no other way. Well, when I kne her back in the Bronx, she always 
seemed like a little kid. She was just like all of the other little kids 
from her neighborhood. She's just a little bit different. How many little 
kids do you know who travel though time?"
	"None. If what you tell me about the Bronx is true, then how does 
she do it?
	"I really don't know," Al said. "I don't even know why she does 
it?"
	Kelly was really was really getting into her shooting game now. 
She was dribbling the ball all over the area in front of the basket. Sam 
 could tell that she was playing against imaginary opponents, like the 
way they practiced their strategy together and the way they clowed around 
sometimes. "She's so fast," she said in a announcer type voice. "She 
dribblies past O'Neil."
	"O'Neil! As in Shaqelle O'Neil! The bes player in all of NBA 
history, Al said. Sam could tell that he believed everything that he had 
just told Sam, and was trying to get him to believe it as well. Sam 
didn't belive it, but something about Kelly's game was really fishy.
	"She shoots. She scores, and the cowd goes w8ild."
	"Nice shot," Sam said as he watched the ball slide through the 
hoop.
	"Sam," she said truning around. Sam could tell that she was relly 
srprised. "I didn't realize you were here. I mean I knew you were here. 
This is your farm. I just didn't know you were nearby."
	*Maybe, there is something to the news Al told me,* Sam thought. 
*Otherwise, she wouldn't be so startled. On the other hand, maybe, I'm 
just letting him get to me.* "Do you want to go up to the house now?" Sam 
asked.
	"Sure," she said as she dropped the ball on the ground. They 
started to walk up to the house together.
	"Jordan's better," she said.
	"I told you, so. She's from the future," Al said. 
	*Yeah, right," Sam thought scarcastically.
	"I was talking about Shaq before," Al continued. "I guess she's a 
Bull's fan. Too bad. The LA Lakers are best. Did you ever see their 
cheerleaders? Watching them is the best part of the game."
	"Jordan's the name of a fellow on the basketball team with me," 
Sam informed him. 
	"I know," she said. "That's who I'm talking about. Who do you 
think I wmean? He would never leave a game to go do his chores."
	"Sorry."
	Kelly rubbed the side of her neck with the palm of her hand. 
"Sam. can you still see it?" 
	"See what?" Sam asked as he gentlely took her hand. They began to 
walk to the house holding hands.
	"She flicked her long blond hair away from her neck and titled 
her head so that the large dark circle on her neck was clearly visible to 
both Sam and Al. "This," she said pointing to it with her long pink 
fingernail. "The hickey you gave me."
	"She got bitten by Doctor Love," Al commented. "When did this 
happen, buddy boy?"
	"Yesterday," Sam responded. His cheeks turned a soft pink.
	"Whose yesterday?" Al stated. "You just leaped in today."
	"Mine," Sam shispered to his friend. "I mean my younger self's."
	"How could you remember that, Sam, if it happened a long time 
ago? There's a lot of teenager in you, whether you believe it or not."
	"I really should cover it up shouldn't I, cutey?" Kelly said. 
"Otherwise, your parents' won't let us studey in your room anymore, even 
if you did promise to help me study for those killer finals we're going 
to be having soon."
	"Let me guess," Al said. "The tow of you were studying for a big 
anatomy test, and decided to get some lips-on and hands-on experience."
	"We were only making oug," Sam said defending himself against his 
friend. "We weren't doing anything else."
	"Including studying," Kelly affirmed.
	"It depends on what you cal 'making out,'" Al said. "YOu could 
cover a lot of grounds by using those words. You could cover a lot to 
Dodger by using those words."
	"Al, I certainly don't mean the same thing that yuo mean," San 
sain annoyed trying to keep his voice down, so KElly could not hear him.
	Al pressed the button on the handlink that opened the imaging 
chamber door. Before he left, he took a look at the couple holding hands. 
"Sam, sometimes you really surprise me," he ssaid looking directly at 
Kelly. He walked though the door leaveing the couple alone.

Monica